Islamists storm German embassy
Anti-US protests by crowds whipped into fury by a film that ridicules Islam's Prophet Mohammed erupted across the Arab world on Friday, leading to an explosion of violence in Sudan, Yemen and Lebanon Egypt and Tunisia.
The protests came after Muslims emerged from mosques in their thousands following the weekly Friday main prayers to voice their anger at the film.
In Khartoum, around 5,000 protesters stormed the embassies of Britain and Germany, which was torched and badly damaged.
Police fired tear gas to disperse the protesters as several of them scaled the roof of the German embassy and others attacked its facade and tore down the flag to replace it with a black Islamist one.
In the Yemeni capital Sanaa, security forces fired warning shots and water cannon to disperse crowds of protesters trying to reach the US embassy. Security forces blocked all roads leading to the mission, after similar confrontations left four people dead on Thursday.
The Pentagon said Friday a platoon of US Marines from with the fleet anti-terrorism security team have been sent to Yemen to bolster security at the embassy and are now on the ground in Sanaa,
"This is partly a response to events over the past two days at our embassy in Yemen but it's also in part a precautionary measure," Pentagon spokesman George Little said.
In the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, a crowd of 300 Islamists attacked and set fire to a KFC restaurant, an AFP correspondent said.
The attack on the US fast-food chain's outlet came as Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Lebanon for a three-day visit, calling for Christian-Muslim coexistence and attacking religious extremism.
With much of the anger directed at the US where the film was made reportedly by a Coptic Christian and promoted by a right-wing pastor, Washington had earlier ordered security boosted at its embassies worldwide.
Protesters in Cairo early Friday again clashed with police outside the US embassy for a fourth straight day.
The Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said Friday the US was not responsible for the anti-Islam film and called for peaceful demonstrations.
In a letter to the New York Times, the Brotherhood's deputy leader Khairat el-Shater said Egyptians have the right to protest the offensive Internet video but that the storming of the US embassy was "illegal."
In Tunisia, police fired tear gas and warning shots as more than 1,000 stone-throwing protesters gathered on Friday outside the US embassy. A thick black plume of smoke was seen rising from the car park of the embassy.
AFP - Reuters